President Obama urges Americans to support Congress' economic stimulus bill. The final version of the package is $789 billion.
(SpinTelly)

(Newser)
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House and Senate negotiators agreed on a compromise $789 billion stimulus plan this afternoon that scales down bills passed by each of the chambers. The final version "creates more jobs than the original Senate bill and spends less than the original House bill," Senate majority leader Harry Reid said. Though lower than in earlier versions, the bill's unprecedented price tag is still unlikely to garner more Republican support, the Washington Post reports.

Some Democrats lamented the $35 billion cut in funds for states, as well as billions cut from school construction and health care, the New York Times reports. The proposed package also sharply reduces tax incentives for home and car buyers, while leaving intact $70 billion to extend the alternative minimum tax protection for the middle class, a measure many think could easily have sailed through Congress another time. "You are not looking at a happy camper," said Sen. Tom Harkin. "They took a lot of stuff out."

Was there Republican support somewhere? I thought all they wanted was tax cuts for those who have $0 income to shelter, $0 taxes to get back. Reminds me of when the auto industry, with a lot of fanfare and Bush smiling, said they were building cars that would run on ethanol. We all know what they really meant: Since their cars already ran on ethanol, they were not going to bother to upgrade their cars. Look what happened. Apparently the Republicans think the same way. Since people with $0 income already pay $0 taxes, the tax cut would not do anything for them. So it's either another way to funnel more money to the rich so they can squirrel it abroad or it's a way for the Republicans to do something while doing nothing.